Door



May 16, 1950 R. A. BOW ERS DOOR Filed June 9. 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTOR. RAYMOND ANDREWS Bowsns R. A. BOWERS May 16, 1950 DOOR 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 9. 1948 INVENTOR. Rammva Aupnsw: Ban/5R:

Patented May 16, 1950 iUN-l- TED S I'A TI'ES PATENT OFFICE DOOR RaymondAndrews Bowers,lfrincet'on,' NJ.

Application June9, 1948,' Serial-No.'31,926

3.Claims. l

'The invention relates to doors and a method manufacturing same.

"The term door as hereinafter employed is intended to encompasspartitions and panels for any construction for which they may beadapted.

'One of the inherent disadvantages of the conventional hinged doorarises from the fact that a door frame must be employed, necessitatingdead or unused space above and on both sides of the door. Completeaccess to the space behind the door is difiicult. Further, the wood ofwhich the doors are made is relatively heavy, since rigidity isnecessaryand they are comparatively expensive to manufacture.

An object of the present invention comprehends the provision of' a doorwhich is transversely mobile; 3, door which will utilize themaximumspace; to provide a door which can be manufactured moreexpeditiously and economically than the conventional door, and ofinexpensive materials availableat all times in large quantities, forexample asbestos and pressed fibre board.

It is a further object to provide a door which may be readily fabricatedfrom single pieces of semi-rigid thin material, as for example asbestosboard, stiffened to a useable degree by the employment of slottedmetallic tubular members engaging the cleated opposite edges of thefabricated blank of material. The door costs less to manufacture thanthe conventional one, and. its construction is such that no frame isnecessary. Additionally the construction eliminates dead or unusedspace, and permits of the maximum access to space behind the door, as ina closet. one preferred material, asbestos board, the door will benon-combustible, vermin-proof and can be exposed to the weatherindefinitely unpainted and unfinished without deleterious .efiect.

Specifically, it is another objectof the invention to provide anexpeditious, economical method of manufacturing doors which, briefly,comprises fixedly securing a plurality of cleats or wedges to oppositevertical edges of a sheet L of asbestos board or other suitablematerial, driving slotted metallic tubes down and over said cleatededges and mounting rollers beneath the opposite lower terminals of saidtubes.

These and other objects of the inventionwill 'beapparent from thedrawings and explication hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a complete assembly of two doorsembodying the invention.

Fig. 2 depicts a sectional viewof the slotted "stiffening tube.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the wood cleat or wedge which iscemented to the sheet, prior to its being forced into the tube.

2. Fig; 4-z-shows a' perspective viewof the parts irrrelati'on to finalassembly.

Fig. 5 shows. the construction which supports the .doorand permitswit'tohave-transverse m'obility.

Figsfiis aperspzective v-iew-ofa three .doorrassembly.

Fig. 7 is. a sectional viewin dotted lines showing the tube, cleat and.panel construction.

Fig. 8 is a cross-section taken along the middle of one of the sections.f Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a door assembly consisting oftwo; doors. embodying the i vention, with numeral 5 denoting a doorhaving rectangular panel or sheet 6 of asbestos board, pressed woodfibre board or othersuitable material. As stated hereinbefore, asbestosboard is zone preferred material (1) because it is, a naturally low costproduct fabricated from asbestos mineral fibres which-are mixed with aspecial cement and rolled, into long strips, thendried and cutv to size;(2) it is tough and resistant, (3) it is non-combustible, vermin-proofand weatherresi'stant even without a protective paint or finof any sort.

Asbestos board hardens into a smooth finish without benefit ofmechanical buffing and any kind of a decorative paint will adherethereto. Additionally, it will not expand,"shrink or'otherwise changedimension or shape as a result of absorption of air-borne moisture. Thismaterial may be worked in much the same manner as wood, but it cannot,like the latter, be chipped, cut or otherwise damaged by children armedwith in the-long dimension if positioned verticallybut will remain rigidin the smaller dimension. To stiffen and strengthen the panel 6, cleats1 or wedges of wood or similar material, of which there may bethree toeach side of the panel are fixedly secured thereto with mastic oro'ther'cementing medium. These members, as best shownin Figs. 3 and 4,may be beveled on'two edges thereof, are from one (1) "'to'two "(2) feetin length and'medially' grooved as at 8 to're- "cei've the oppositevertical edges ofthe sheeti.

In conjunction with the sheet or panel 6, with cleats l securely afiixedthereto, and to stiffen sheet 6 in its vertical or longest dimension, Iem- 3 ploy metallic or rigid tubes 9 cut longitudinally full length(minus a small fraction) along one side and parallel to the axis of thetube to provide slot l0.

Adverting to cleats l, and referring particularly to Fig. 8, incross-section the cleat members are minutely smaller than the interiordiameter of tubes 9.

With the cleats 1 fixed to opposite vertical edges of sheet 6 slottedtubes 9 are driven over the cleated edges of the panel to snugly engagethe cleats with the opposing edges of the slotted tube pressing firmlyagainst the sheet 6 throughout its length. The latter prevent theasbestos panel from slipping from the tube and provide a mechanicalmeans of accurately assuring that the sides of panel 6 are inserted intothe tubes exactly the same distance at all points to provide a square,true and rigid door. Two tubes 9 are employed for each door, one to eachvertical edge.

It has been found that round metallic tubes slotted longitudinally arepreferable as vertical stifiening elements for several reasons:

(1) Metal was selected because it has more strength for the size andthickness of material than wood or other materials. Also it can beentirely machine fabricated; it is consistent in quality; isnon-combustible and is not easily damaged.

It is light in weight, will not rust or corrode, and does not need to bepainted. It is also easily worked or cut by machine-tools and can bepurchased from stock which avoids the necessity for special tooling orstamping, in order to fabricate the door.

A round section is used because it has more strength with less weightthan other shapes.

The purpose of using a slot in the metal tube as a means of fasteningthe asbestos panel is to make a continuous natural structural andeconomical connection that could not be achieved by means of screws,bolts or clips. The slot principle makes the maximum use of the naturalstrength of the curved metal shape of the tube.

To support the door vertically and to give it transverse mobility Iemploy rollers H axially mounted in sheaves l2 which fit into the bottomof the tubes 9. The weight of the door is thus supported on the opposingcorners transmitting the weight of the door to the track, indicated bynumeral 13. A continuous track across the entire space is provided foreach door so that doors 5 may both be moved to either side of the roomor closet opening. For purposes of manipulation,

of the doors horizontally, knobs It are mounted thereon.

For guiding the heads of the doors I provide grooved overhead track 15,the grooves of which are of suificient width to accommodate, the upperedges of sheets 6 which protrude from the tops of tubes 9. These upperedges of sheets 6 register slidably in the respective grooves of trackl5 and said grooves are made sufficiently deep to permit the doors to belifted clear of the bottom track for removal and for originalinstallation.

The invention contemplates that a plurality of two, three or four doorsconstitute the preferred assemblies, requiring respectively two, threeand four lower and overhead tracks.

The construction eliminates the dead or unused space formerly utilizedfor the conventional door frame. It permits access to all the spacebehind the door since the doors are all readily movable to one side orthe other at the same time.

That full access is bad to all space behind the door is shown in Fig. 6wherein the wall lines are indicated by the vertical dotted lines andthe ceil ing and floor lines by the horizontal dotted lines.

The manufacturing method employed is expeditious and economical. Itcomprises fixedly securing a plurality of cleats or wedges to theopposite vertical edges of asbestos board or the like with a cementingmedium; driving a slotted metallic tubing member down and over thecleated opposing edges of the board and finally axially mounting aroller or sheave beneath opposite lower terminals of said tubes. Themethod permits of the employment of relative inexpensive, readilyavailable material, for example asbestos fibre board or pressed fibreboard.

Qther advantages of the invention are (a) most of the dim-cult andexpensive plastering operations inside a closet are eliminated (b) thedoors may be installed with a minimum of field labor (0) studding,lathing, plastering, framing, hardware and installation time areminimized and (d) the hazard of a swinging door is eliminated.

I reserve the right to make such changes and modifications as may comewithin the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a door, a rectangular sheet of relatively thin material, rigid inits short horizontal dimension and bendable in its long verticaldimension, elongated cleats bonded to opposite vertical edges of saidsheet, slotted rigid tubes of less length than the length of saidvertical edges and of a diameter sufficient to receive and embrace thecleated opposite edges of the sheet and with the tops thereof spacedbelow the top of the sheet, said tubes positioned in close fittingengagement with said cleats and with the opposite sides ofthe sheet, androllers mounted in and projecting below the bottom ends of said tubesfor providing mobility to said door.

2. A door, as claimed in claim 1 wherein the bottom ends of the tubesproject below the bottom edge of the sheet.

3. A door assembly comprising, in combination, at least a pair of doorsas claimed in claim 1 for mounting between ceiling and floor, an uppertrack mounted at the ceiling having at least a pair of parallel groovesextending across the opening, each of said grooves of a lengthapproximately twice the width of one door, a grooved lower track mountedat the iloor and beneath the upper track, the upper edges of the doorssliding in the grooves of the upper track and the rollers of the doorsrolling in the lower track.

RAYMOND ANDREWS BOWERS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis pa ent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Nurnber Name Date 2,080,593 Albert May 18, 19372,463,238 Eissell et al., Jr Mar. 1, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number CountryDate 67,077 Switzerland Dec. 17, 1913 84,427 Sweden 1935

